xmlhack: XPointer splits into four pieces

The much delayed XPointer specification has broken into four pieces, including an XPointer Framework and three schemes - xmlns(), element(), and xpointer(), with all but the last in Last Call.

The new drafts seem to recognize the resistance to earlier versions, and follow some lines for "scheme-based fragments" of an Internet Draft, A generic fragment identifier syntax for URI references. Instead of creating one large specification with two conformance levels, the new approach defines a framework for creating schemes which also defines shorthand pointers, formerly bare names, which operate like HTML anchors. The other three drafts define schemes for identifying namespaces, using child sequences (like /1/2/3/4), and using the full power of the previous XPointer specification through the XPointer scheme.

Also notable is the new set of drafts' explicit support for IDs defined in W3C XML Schema in addition to those defined in DTDs, at least for shorthand pointers and the element() scheme.

Ron Daniel, one of the editors of the specifications, noted:

"All the drafts are last-call WDs, except for the xpointer() scheme. It is a working draft, and the issue of equality of points is the main technical issue we will be addressing before advancing it to last call."